I can only claim this once. This is the best movie of all time! I have watched it six times in four days. All I have done this weekend is sleep, work, do homework and watch Hero.
I can't stress enough how pretty this movie is. Imagine this, two red robed woemn clashing swords in a whirlwind of bright yellow leaves. Then one gets struck down and all the leaves turn to blood red. Colour is used extensively in every scene. Sometimes the same scene is shown with different colours to show a different perspective.
The other thing that makes this movie stand out is it's unique storyline. The story is just about a warrior telling a story to the king about how he slayed three assassins. The story takes about 35 minutes to tell but the movie lasts for 1 and a half hours. Nothing else happens. To find out what happens in that last hour you'll have to watch the movie.
I have found one weakness in this movie. It's not the fact that the stunts go beyond unrealistic. The warriors are meant to be super human. It's the editting that lets this movie down. The reason being is that Quinten Tarinteno cut nine minutes (mainly in fight scenes) out of the movie in order to quicken the pace. This means sometimes the fight scenes don't flow as well as they should but it will appeal to a wider audience.
I think this movie isn't known as well as it should because of bad advertising. Eg, it was shown at Rialto rather than Village cinemas. I just feel sorry for all those people missing out on such an exquisite movie.